Welcome to r/CriticalTheory!

Critical theory is a school of thought that stresses the examination and the critique of society and culture, by applying knowledge from the social sciences and the humanities.

As a term, critical theory has two meanings with different origins and histories: the first originated in sociology and the second originated in literary criticism, whereby it is used and applied as an umbrella term that can describe a theory founded upon critique; thus, the theorist Max Horkheimer described a theory as critical in so far as it seeks "to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them."

I've been set an assignment as part of a Criticism module on my English Literature degree - to write about a modern-day myth in the style of Barthes. Currently i can only think of the xfactor, and reality television as a whole, does anyone have any other ideas of potential topics?

look at the book closely- he finds myth in a lot of material objects. keep in mind that for Barthes the big bourgeois myth is basically this: Everything is just fine. Start looking for that and you will find it everywhere.

Think of the anti-hero myth perpetrated in famous TV shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, under which a tall, heterosexual, white middle-aged man becomes a badass crime deviant who fucks everything up and is a horrible person but is glorified for just that reason.